Ministry wants list of ‘exploitable’ state assets
The Finance Ministry has asked the Hellenic Public Real Estate Corporation to provide it by June with a list of 10 to 15 state assets that can be exploited to raise much-needed revenue and contribute to plugging Greece’s gaping budget deficit, it emerged over the weekend.
The ministry, which caused a political storm earlier this month after telling the country’s international creditors that it would attempt to raise 50 billion euros in revenue through the exploitation of state assets over the next five years, has asked for a list of 10 to 15 assets – chiefly real esate – by June to get started on this ambitious program. A second list is to be drawn up for ministry officials by December, sources said.
According to a new report by the Andreas Papandreou Institute for Strategic and Development Relations (ISTAME), a think tank affiliated with ruling PASOK, raising 50 billion euros in revenue from state assets by 2015 is virtually impossible as only 100 out of an estimated 71,000 state assets are in a position to be exploited.
In total, these 71,000 assets are worth an estimated 272 billion euros. But the main problem, according to the ISTAME report, is that the value of most of these assets is difficult to assess as the use of land on the plots has not been established.
Of the 71,000 assets, 16,154 are not properly registered (there are insufficient details about their location and legal status) and another 35,819 have been encroached upon, either partially or wholly, by trespassers. Just 9,563 of these state assets are «available,» according to ISTAME. Still, exploiting just 100 of these assets is «an exceptionally ambitious target,» according to the think tank.
